Crush Wine Bar and Restaurant seems upscale but it's casual

LAKE FOREST – Crush Wine Bar and Restaurant owner and chef Albert Constandine learned to cook from his Greek grandma. For four years now, he's paired his culinary creations with some of California's best wines at Crush Wine Bar and Restaurant in Lake Forest.

"He can cook with the best of them. He's very famous for his lamb dishes," Ken Lusar, the restaurant's day manager, said. Crush also has a selection of beef, seafood and chicken dishes, a varied appetizer menu (duck quesadilla, sausage empanada, for example) and extensive list of wine offerings, primarily from the Napa Valley.

More recently, they've added martinis to the bar offerings.

"We're not a cocktail bar," Lusar said. But we do a lot of corporate trade and we had a lot of businesspeople coming in who wanted a martini." Crush serves premium Blue Ice Idaho Potato Vodka.

Open for lunch and dinner, Crush Wine Bar and Restaurant also has a private room for corporate meetings and parties. Wi-Fi is available, as is a 56-inch LCD monitor for business presentations. And there's alfresco dining on the patio.

"We also have regulars who live right around the corner," Lusar said. "This is a fun place to hang out and meet your friends. It seems upscale but we're very casual."